Automated material placement is widely used in aerospace and other industries in the fabrication of large composite structures. A variety of placement processes and machines are used for rapid placement of composite material. It is desirable for such machines to have in-process inspection capabilities to assure consistent quality without impacting machine operation. As new and/or improved inspection capabilities are added to material placement machines, it is desirable to minimize the number of new components to be added to implement new or improved features. Accordingly, it can be desirable to use existing machine components when incorporating new or improved features in a machine.